May 3, 2007
Despite Promises, Government Assistance to Conflict Victims is Minimal
By Anju GautamFor the last four months at least 200 people, who were displaced by the decade-long civil war in Nepal, have been living under makeshift tents in a government-owned field in the busy Tinkune neighborhood of Kathmandu. The field, about two kilometers from Tribhuvan International Airport, is surrounded from all sides with busy roads, constant traffic, and stifling pollution. The tents are made from plastic and propped up with sticks. They are barely tall enough to stand underneath. And as many as eight people live under each tiny tent.
In addition to the living tents, there is a separate tent that acts as a kitchen, though the food rations and utensils that have been donated by a few local nongovernmental organizations are scarce. Two holes dug into the dirt and covered with a plastic sheet serve as toilets for the 200 conflict victims, many of whom claim that so far they have not received the assistance they were promised by the newly formed government.
The small, makeshift tents sleep up to eight people every night.
Goma Khadka, 28, of Sunsari, an eastern district of Nepal, is one of the hundreds of internally displaced people who has been living at this improvised camp ground for months. Khadka says she and others have been demanding the new government ministers, who were installed on April 1, 2007, create a safe environment so they can return home. They also want the compensation they were promised when their relatives were killed during the civil war. Khadka lives in one of the small tents with her six-year-old son. She says "Maoists killed my husband and after his death, my mother-in-law ousted me from my home." This littered field was the only place she and her son could go.
The political history in Nepal over the last decade has been tumultuous. In 1996, the Communist Party of Nepal, (CPN-Maoists), launched the People's War with the aim of overthrowing Nepal's monarchy and establishing a republic. According to the Informal Sector Service Center, INSEC, a nongovernmental organization that works for human rights in Nepal, more than 13,000 people lost their lives during a decade-long conflict. INSEC estimates that the then Royal Nepalese Army killed 8,377 people, while Maoist rebels killed another 4,970 people. No exact data has been compiled to estimate the number of Nepalis that were displaced, however INSEC estimates that as many as 200,000 people were displaced during the war.
After democracy was restored in Nepal in 2006, the Seven Party Allience, led by Girija Prasad Koirala, signed peace agreement with the Maoists and formerly ended the conflict. At that time, both parties promised to create an environment for the safe return of displaced conflict victims. Despite the political developments, thousands of displaced people across the country complain that the government, which now formally includes the Maoists, has not paid proper attention to the problems lingering in the aftermath of the war. Several citizen groups, including the Maoist Victim Struggle Committee, have formed to agitate for government participation in their safe resettlement.
Although all Nepali people were affected by the civil war in some way, women have been among the most negatively impacted, says the conservation officer of the National Human Rights Commission, Maya Devi Sharma. "The women have been the most affected due to the paternal structure of our society and their lack of awareness," she says.
Back at the tented camp, Khadka agrees. She says Maoists killed her husband Jeevan Khadka, a soldier for the Royal Nepalese Army, on July 13, 2004. On that day, she says, Jeevan came to visit her in her mother's home at Prakashpur, a village in Sunsari. At the time she was sick and bed ridden. She says Jeevan left the house, saying that he would be back after few hours, but he never returned. "Maoists cut my husband into two pieces and threw him into a jungle near our village," Khadka said, her eyes full of tears.
The displaced people's kitchen facilities are infrequently stocked with food by local NGOs.
After the death of her husband, Khadka returned to her husband's home and completed his last rites. In the following days, she and her son lived with her in-laws. But she says she was not treated well there. Because widow discrimination is common in Nepal, many women who lost their husbands in the civil war were mistreated by family and society after their husbands were killed. Khadka says she was forced to work when she was sick; was not given proper food; her son was not enrolled in school; and she was assumed to have inauspicious character because of the death of her husband. She says she bore the treatment for one month, before she was ousted her from the house. Khadka says she couldn't stay in her village because of the discrimination, her weak economic situation, and fear of the Maoist rebels in the area. "So I have come here with a hope that the government will do something for me," she says.
Although her husband was a soldier in the government's army, the government did not provide the guaranteed compensation of 700,000 rupees, about $10,000 USD, which is promised to the families of army personnel killed during the conflict because Jeevan was technically on leave at the time when he was killed. Khadka says she wants the new government to provide her with money to educate her son, and compensate her with at least enough money to return home safely.
The spokesperson of Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction, Ramesh Sharma, confirms, "The families of soldiers that were on leave [at the time of their deaths] are not compensated." Sharma says the government may provide assistance to such families later, but provided no detailed plan of action.
The government established the Peace and Reconstruction Ministry on April 1, 2007. The ministry is charged with surveying the total damage during and in the immediate aftermath of the conflict. The new government has also allocated 3.8 billion rupees for the rehabilitation of conflict victims, none of which has been distributed yet. Dharma Raj Neupane, president of the Maoist Victim’s Struggle Committee says, "That budget is not enough to [assist all of the victims] and reconstruct damaged properties. Moreover," he says, "we have not received any of it yet."
While conflict victims complain that government has not taken concrete steps to rehabilitate the thousands of internally displaced people, government officials blame the Maoists for not fulfilling their commitments expressed in the original cease fire and peace agreements. Sharma says, "Even after the conflict has ended, the situation is such that we still cannot reach all the districts as the Maoists have not changed their behavior or returned properties [that were ceased during the war] yet."
Dharma Sheela Chapagain, a member of Nepal's interim parliament representing the Maoist party, denies the charge that Maoists have not changed their rebel behaviors or fulfilled their commitments to conflict victims. "We are fully aware of our commitments to create an environment for their safe return and to return property that was ceased and we have already started the process of returning that property," she says. Chapagain says the interim parliament has already passed a new policy for assisting the displaced, which will help to identify and assist internally displaced persons, guaranteeing their socio-economic and political rights. Though as of press time, no concrete action or plan to assist conflict victims had been put into action.
Human Right Activist Krishna Pahari says it is not just the Maoists that are responsible for the lack of assistance the displaced are receiving. He says, as of yet, no member or party in the new government has taken steps to adequately help the victims.
Khadka says that government assurances mean nothing to her anymore, "The government is not doing anything for the ill-fated people of the conflict, like us."
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